When users plan a trip to a destination, such as to a grocery store, a retailer, a restaurant, or other point-of-interest users often desire to know how long the trip to the destination will take. For example, a user searches for a particular restaurant or retail chain in a mapping application on a user device, such as a mobile phone. Based on the search criteria, the mapping application may return a travel distance and expected time to various locations of the restaurant or retailer chain. The mapping application may also highlight the chain location that is the closest to the user device. The mapping application may also provide recommended routes for the user to take to the closest chain location.
While knowing the travel time and distance to a location is often helpful to a user, the user is left without knowing how busy the nearest location is or whether other, nearby locations are less busy. For example, the user does not know whether visiting a chain location that is slightly further away—but less busy or less crowded—may take less time overall than visiting the chain location that is nearby. Thus, based on travel time to the destination alone, the user may spend more time traveling to and visiting the nearest location than the user would if traveling to and visiting a location that is further away. And in some instances, a user may not care how long it takes to get to a point-of-interest. Rather, the user may desire only to know how long the wait is at a particular point-of-interest or how long it will take the user to pass through the point-of-interest, such as through a checkout line at a retailer. In addition to knowing how long a trip will take, in certain instances a user may wish to know the fastest route or alternate routes. For example, a user with a specific shopping list may desire the best route (or alternate routes) for obtaining the products on the shopping list.